Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Me and Bruce: is there anybody alive out there?

A while ago I was contacted by Bill who asked me to apply to submit a proposal for a book chapter in the form of a zine. With a lot of hand holding from Bill, the chapter was accepted and appears in the new publication out today from Routledge.

Writing for an actual book took me completely out of my comfort zone having only ever really written zines before. I’ve published a few academic articles on libraries before, but that’s about it. Give me a glue stick and a photocopier and I know what to do, but writing for an actual publication where things like spelling and grammar and copyright need to be considered and I have no idea what to do.

My first few million drafts were awful as I panicked that it had to be PROPER but Bill was a brilliant editor who helped me write a zine piece in my own voice and was happy to answer my stupid questions. I have to admit I find academia completely terrifying and intimidating, and it’s been a long time since I’ve had to speak the language. Thankfully, my book chapter didn’t have to try and pretend to speak academically and I could talk in my own voice as much as I wanted.

My zine chapter is an extension of my Me and Bruce zine series and I use it to talk about being a queer Bruce Springsteen fan. I talk about queering Springsteen’s lyrics, and appropriating themes of loneliness and isolation in Bruce’s lyrics as the small town queer experience. Complete with my shoddy drawings and cut and paste, it’s basically the unofficial issue 4 of Me and Bruce.

The book is finally out today and if you happen to work for an academic library or have a lot of money you can order it here

Thanks to Bill for being great and encouraging me to be a part of the book and answering my stupid questions. And thanks to Bruce for being a constant source of queer inspiration.

I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface with what I want to say about Bruce as my queer hero in this book chapter and I’ll be exploring this is in more detail in the next issue of Me and Bruce which is coming soon!